Jamaican Cheek et al

music

It seems like I don't pay that much attention to Japanese music, doesn't it? I guess that's mostly true. Can't develop enough patience for J-Pop. But I do wander into live houses every now and again to see what the kids are doing with their time.

Last Sunday it was KIASMA vol. 8 at Basement Bar in Shimokitazawa, and despite the heavy smoke that stuck to my skin and attacked my eyeballs, I'm really glad I went. Although The Lonesome Port was headlining, it seemed like most people were there to see a girl band called P-Heavy. They were...uh...okay. No worse than a few of the other bands that night.

Before I go any further, let me make clear that I know fuck-all about making music. My aspirations to become a rock star ended with the harsh realization that all I know how to do is sing. Opera. I suck. That said, some bands just aren't...good. And even if they know their instruments and can display impressive skills, there's no changing the fact that the music they create lacks depth and/or intelligence.

P-Heavy was fun. They had glittery guitars and matching outfits. What's more, they were cute. Who doesn't want to watch cute girls with guitars? Anyone? No? That's what I thought. Thing is, I couldn't get over the feeling that they were little more than a novelty act. It pains me to write that. Having never quite recovered from seeing Not Bad for a Girl several years ago, I've so desperately wanted to see more female musicians prove themselves. And if P-Heavy stood on their own, I might have been a tad more optimistic on their behalf. But that wasn't about to happen when they were being followed by a band with real talent and a stronger sound, Jamaican Cheek.

Despite their rather unfortunate name, Jamaican Cheek rocked my world for about half an hour. Their music was certainly calmer, and maybe that's one of the reasons I liked them; I'm getting old. They didn't need to kick and scream for attention, nor use bright colors and shiny effects. They just played. It was layered, complex and innovative while still managing to be playful and memorable. I don't know what more I need to say to let you know that I really liked them. Really. I did. I liked Lonesome Port too, but not nearly as much as Jamaican Cheek. They were brilliant.

Or maybe I was just completely sloshed by then.

Well, we could find out soon because they're playing again at MANDA-LA2 in Kichijoji on the 6th. Also playing that night are Hacca and Zettaimu (you can hear some of their music here). The music starts at 7:30 and admission is 1800 yen plus one drink. Feel free to tell me if you think I've lost my mind.

Moses Stone

travel update

You know that Ten Commandments stone I mentioned way back in June as part of the Grand Religious Tour of Japan? Apparently, they only wheel that sucker out once a year during their shrine's big autumnal festival.

Fortunately, that festival is coming up this weekend! Unfortunately, I just found out that "only special members" are allowed to see the stone and the shrine's other "treasures." A friend of mine called them up for me and talked to a woman who works there, and she claims that the woman was sort of mean and guarded. "She must get a lot of calls from people who want to laugh at them," I was told.

Okay, guilty.

But you know what? It's not like I would have laughed at them to their faces or anything. I think part of me could have taken this seriously, like any other religion. Believe it or not, I'm still capable of showing respect to people of faith. Ah, well.

If anyone is still interested, the shrine's website can tell you more. And if you do go, you can still see the shrine itself, the festival (on Monday), and you can buy your very own copy of the Takeuchi book, which (as I mentioned before) is the one with claims about Jesus and other teachers coming to study in Japan.

Dems Abroad

event

This'll be quick. And if you're neither a U.S. voter nor interested in U.S. politics, don't bother. (But if you're a U.S. voter who still isn't interested, pay attention for once, Billy Bob.)

Before my state's last gubernatorial election, I quite possibly gave the voters more credit than they deserved. "They're smarter than that," I told my Japanese friends. "There's no way in hell they'd think Schwarzamacallit was a good idea." But as Beth once put it, some people are too stupid for democracy.

That's how I feel now. Frustrated and seriously disheartened that the majority of eligible voters don't care enough to take this shit seriously. Hopefully, everyone will wise up by the time the next presidential election comes around. And guess what? Tomorrow night is one of many chances you have from this side of the Pacific.

At Pink Cow, Democrats Abroad will be holding a fundraiser called "Vote America Out of the Bushes." They'll be viewing the Democrat candidate debate from October 9th, hoping to inspire voters to find a man or woman to represent them against Karl Rove's puppet in 2004. And just because a lot of people are saying "Anyone would be better than Bush," that still doesn't mean we can slack off from giving it some real thought.

If you're registered as a Democrat, this'll give you a good opportunity to meet like-minded folks and get involved in campaigning to the ten or eleven other Americans in Japan. (Obviously, I pulled that number out of my ass. I have no idea how many there really are.) If you're registered under another party but aren't a stickler for party lines, you're still very welcome to attend. And if you're not registered at all, they can hook you up.

And if encouragement doesn't do it, how about fear? Four more years?

Belle and Sebastian

music

Holy shit. Belle and Sebastian are coming back.

I can't tell you how excited I am about that. I've been re-discovering them this past year and practically devoured "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" when it came out last month. (Er...it's possible to devour things with your ears, right? Never mind.) I just missed their California concerts and the scavenger hunts that preceded them by about a week and almost cried. So I...oh crap. Crap! I'm going to be busy on both nights! CRAP!

Someone please remind me to never ever ever be in another play again. I'll be shedding tears those nights and they just might be real. Frickin'-frackin' play...

Okay, so for you lucky bastards (crap!), they'll be playing at Shibuya AX on 28 January and at Koukaido on 29 January. You can pre-order tickets between the 10th and 12th of November, but they officially go on sale starting on the 15th.

I hate you. I hate you all.

Andrzej and Rough Trade

music

I don't know if he'll mind my mentioning this, but my friend Andrzej's playing a short set at Night-in-gales tonight from 9pm. It's sort of a last minute thing and he probably doesn't want to make a big "to do" about it. I just thought that, if I haven't seen you in a while, this would be a good excuse before I get good-and-busy preparing for the next play. I really like what I've heard of his music so far; it shouldn't have come as a surprise when I recently found out that we listen to a lot of the same artists. And he's got an amazing singing voice. Ask anyone who has ever heard him so much as hum two notes.

So. There it is. Let's get drunk at Golden Gai and repeatedly yell at Andrzej to "Play 'Freebird'!" until he kicks us out.

I also wanted to send out the reminder that tickets have already gone on sale for British Sea Power and The Delays, who will be playing together at Shibuya Club Quattro [map] on 18 December. It's a Rough Trade night! Whee. I guess this fits in with my secret plan to see every weirdo indie-label band to hit Tokyo. From British Sea Power's Rough Trade bio:

Though courteous and hygienic when licking stamps and ordering general provisions, once placed upon the concert stage they are remarkable in their actions: quick of foot and unafraid in their movements.

Their live shows are legendary, with band members often dressed in costumes and giving as much fire and energy to you as their tiny little English bodies can handle. They cover the stage with plastic animals and plants—bringing together the worlds of rock'n'roll and fake wildlife—and their shows often end in a "visceral chaos akin more to performance art than rock music."

It's not all gimmicks and stage antics, however. As put by Pitchfork Media, "BSP have the song-power to back up their bullshit." Listen closely, and you'll find a group of true musicians...just, you know, "true musicians" who like to have fun. Nothing wrong with that.

Grad Schools

event

I'm still in mourning, but I'm in mourning while trying to be a productive person.

I've just about had it with this extended vacation I've been calling "living in Tokyo" and I'm a-fixin' to go to grad school. I've been considering U.K. universities because most programs only take a year of full-time studying, but my co-worker has also planted the idea of Australian universities in my head...even though big bugs live there. (While I haven't been entirely convinced by his argument "We could hang out!" the cost of living isn't as daunting as that of the U.K.)

My point? Oh, right. Next week there'll be an international education fair in Tokyo for people considering postgraduate studies. It'll take place on 7 November at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo [map] from 5pm to 9pm. You can register here and a partial list of participating schools can be found here.

Who's with me? Let's blow this popsicle stand.

Elliott Smith

Elliott

Goodbye, Elliott Smith. I loved you. I really did.

Pole Pole

film

Remember how I whinged about how BOX Higashi-Nakano shut down just when we were getting to know each other? It was mostly for naught because Theater Pole Pole is still taking it upon themselves to fill our lives with indie film goodness at the exact same location.

For most of this month, the late shows are "Rock Films," which are mostly concert films and documentaries featuring—what else?—rocks. Or, uh, something. The first three in this program (The Filth and the Fury, Stop Making Sense and Year of the Horse) came and went while I wasn't looking, but I'm hoping to find time for the next two: Jimi Hendrix (playing from today to the 17th) and Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival (playing from the 18th to the 20th and considered a turning point in rock history).

It's probably a faux pas to admit that I'm not a huge Jimi Hendrix fan. But I am a sucker for biographical documentaries, especially if they're all bitchy-like a la those VH1 dealies. And speaking of bitchy-like, I live for the IMDB user comments. One described Message to Love as:

A very entertaining look at naive hippiedom. The glimpses and interviews with the not-so-well-groomed attendees are often hilarious (unintentionally) and sometimes heartbreaking. (A man admits to regularly giving his 3 year old son acid and marijuana.) The hippyspeak is also very enjoyable. The word "money" is never used—it's always "bread, man." The hippies feel that they have an entitlement to free music, (It was only £3 to get in. Boy, hippies were cheap), while the promoters claim that they are just trying to break even.

Only 50,000 of the 600,000 attendees paid to get in, turning the festival into a financial disaster, so we get to watch the slow disintegration of promoter/MC Rikki Farr. After dealing with gate-crashers, greedy managers and mostly mediocre performances, Farr has a breakdown on stage and releases a diatribe on the crowd, calling them "pigs" and compounding the animosity between promoters and audience. So, despite performances by The Who, The Doors (months before Morrison's death), Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Miles Davis, Leonard Cohen and a drugged-out Jimi Hendrix (weeks before his death), the real draw here is in how the film documents "the decline of '60s idealism in the face of cutthroat capitalism." Forget Woodstock.

Also, I've already seen the last film in the Rock Film program, Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz. But I thought I'd mention it in case someone's interested.

Admission to Theater Pole Pole is 1500 yen, and all of the films mentioned here start at 9:10 in the evening.

Super Furry Animals

music

My sister thinks I'm weird.

I can't tell you how disturbing that is to me. We grew up together; she's supposed to think I'm normal. In fact, when you're feeling like a bit of an outsider and holding back so as not to scare off other people, shouldn't you at least be able to find acceptance from those with whom you spent your childhood? Besides, my quirks aren't that weird. I mumble to myself, speak in gibberish and write sonnets about my knee. Big deal. Who doesn't?

You want weird? I'll give you weird. How about Super Furry Animals? They're playing at Shinjuku's Liquid Room next month to a sold out show on the 17th and soon-to-be-sold out thingamajigger on the 18th. At this point, I am so overwhelmed by the wackiness that I'm going to have to rely on someone else to explain it to you. From PopMatters:

The Welsh band's 2001 opus Rings Around the World was one of the only sparkling musical moments in what was an incredibly crappy, depressing year. You had robotic Marvin Gaye tributes, Beach Boys harmonies, a blatant ELO imitation, wild moments of techno noise, and the ultimate piece de resistance, the sound of Paul McCartney rhythmically chewing carrots and celery. It was a psychotic masterpiece of an album, proof that there was at least one band on this planet willing to do anything they could in an effort to put out the greatest rock record ever made.

I don't see any reason for you not to be won over by now.

While it's true that with Phantom Power they go mellower, eccentricities still abound and their music continues to be great fun. I've never seen them live. Though they played in L.A. while I was there, I didn't feel I could ask any more of my sister than I already had. So I'm happy to get the chance in November. Their concerts are said to be multimedia extravaganzas with social/political commentary, incredible sounds and sometimes even yetis.

If you aren't acquainted with the craziness of the Super Furry Animals, they have people dress up as yetis and come onstage and play the instruments, especially the drums and the bongos. Everyone loves the yetis, they make us laugh like nothing else, and there's always some stoned kid who is a virgin to Furries gigs and is looking at the yetis and then looking at everyone else, as if to say "Is it just me who sees that?" no mate, it isn't, and the yetis as usual bang out a bossy, funky and extremely dancey track which everyone loves. It's my dream to be a yeti. A bass-playing yeti. There's also a man in an inflatable space suit onstage at one point.

I do believe I'm in love.

Again, Super Furry Animals will be playing two shows at the Liquid Room in Shinjuku (on 17 and 18 November) and one in Osaka (on the 20th) before moving on to their tour of Australia and New Zealand. Advanced tickets are 6000 yen and all Japan shows start at 7pm.

Mako Idemitsu

video art

How's your Japanese?

On the 19th of this month Phaidros Cafe will be showing three works by Mako Idemitsu, a pioneer in the fields of experimental film and video art in Japan. Once upon a time I wasn't sure feminism even existed in this country, but of course I now see that Idemitsu's is just one of the many voices that provide evidence to the contrary.

Don't let the description of the first video, "What a Woman Made" (1973), scare you off. "While this video show the beautiful tampons which after used the story tell you about how girls become a wamen." Heh. Good times.

It's just one of Idemitsu's earlier pieces. At Phaidros, we would get to see how her work evolved from that with her videos "Yoji, What's Wrong with You?" (1987) and her most recent work "Kae, Act Like a Girl!" (1996). In the former, she presents an Oedipal narrative in which a mother, who has failed to create an identity of her own, clings to her son and comes to destroy his life. The identity of housewives and the roles of mothers and children in Japanese society are recurring themes in Idemitsu's works, showing up most notably in "Another Day of a Housewife" and the Great Mother series.

With "Kae, Act Like a Girl!" Idemitsu admits to have been inspired by Simone de Beauvoir's claim in The Second Sex that "One is not born a woman; one becomes one." It's a strange narrative of a woman artist who internalizes those external voices of doubt telling her, for example, that she should give up being an artist or that women can be creative by having babies instead. Idemitsu plays on her signature technique, "'Mako style,' where a person's inner world is projected onto a small monitor installed on a larger screen." But, here, those monitors show abstract images and colors, while Kae's "inner world" is expanded to other surfaces, "the large canvas Kae is working on or the dishes she is washing in the kitchen sink." And by using highly artificial sets, strange lighting, awkward sounds and unusual movement, Idemitsu is not merely presenting the viewer with familiar realities, but placing them "at a distance where they can be considered more objectively."

Again, these videos will be presented by independent curator Kumiko Sejima at Phaidros Cafe on 19 October starting at 8pm. Admission is 1200 yen and includes one drink. They also serve food, but (if I remember correctly) only after the screenings. I know you know I can't go to this (I'll be sitting in a dark, cramped space in Akasaka), but I would if I could. So please let me live vicariously.

Blithe Spirit and True West

theatre

You know what I hate? I hate when entertainment writers use Shakespeare quotes to make dorky headlines. Like "All the World's a Stage!" or "The Play's the Thing!"

But, um, yeah. The...uh...Play's the...um. Thing.

This month, anyway. There are two English-language plays being performed in Tokyo in October. The first is TIP's production of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, playing from the 9th to the 11th at their regular venue, Tokyo American Club [map]. It's being directed by John Owens, who directed last season's Amadeus. And Owens must have a talent for casting because, once again, the ensemble is all kinds of fabulous. While I'm looking forward to the performance of the entire cast, I have to admit that I'm especially excited to see Rachel Walzer as Elvira since I thought she was so hilarious in What the Butler Saw. Every second spent watching her is a second that you learn something new about the character. Damn funny, that broad. I can only go to the Thursday show, so if that sounds good to you, let me know.

The other play is Sam Shepard's True West, which is being presented by Sometimes Y Theatre and White Monkey Productions. I'm assuming people don't know that this here is just a simple, private weblog being run by one (lazy) person, and that that's why people keep sending me press releases. It's okay; it makes me feel important. But anyway, yeah, they sent me two press releases for this play. I'm about to out myself right now and admit that I'm doing props for them. (Yeah. Hi. It's me.) So you guys don't need to send me anymore stuff, okay? I totally know already.

True West will star Robert Tsonos (who directed TIP's production of Dial 'M' for Murder last season) and Matt Lagan (who starred in aforementioned production and was reportedly brilliant...not that I know or anything because I wasn't even here for that), and is being directed by one of my favorite people, David Neale. David directed TIP's Godspell a couple of years ago. I'm not a fan of that musical and I expected it to be totally stupid before I saw it. But you know what? It turned out to be amazingly good. I didn't even feel alienated by all that Jesus-love. It was really fucking cool. For a musical, that is.

True West will be performed from the 15th to the 19th (7:30 pm every night, with weekend matinees at 2 pm) at Studio Akasaka Playbox, where Intrigue Theatre has been performing a lot lately. So you can find access information on their site. Tickets are 4000 yen, but for the Sunday matinee, it's "pay what you can." And you can call 090-9130-5305 or e-mail true.west@encorekk.com for tickets. Make sure to say "hi" to the props mistress.